******STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!******

The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine two-parter “Past Tense” debuted 29 years ago this month (January 5th and January 12th, 1995), and it was set in the then-near future of 2024, which is now.  The episode itself forecast a dark, vaguely fascistic era where homeless people are rounded up en masse and placed into “sanctuary districts”; walled-off community prisons for the ‘crimes’ of simply being destitute or mentally ill.  Sadly, this is not exactly far-fetched, especially with governors of border states dropping off undocumented migrants into ‘sanctuary cities’ with no means for the migrants to assimilate into their new environments.  Recently, US presidential candidate (and multiple indictee ex-president) Donald Trump announced a plan at a campaign stop to place unhoused people into vast areas of federally-marked land where they would essentially fend for themselves in tent cities. Sound familiar?

DS9 took this uncanny look into the future through a Starfleet away team who become stranded in this alternate 2024, arriving in one such sanctuary district filled with the unemployed, the mentally ill and the just plain unlucky of San Francisco (future site of Starfleet Command headquarters). This barely-fictional community of the forgotten soon reaches a boiling point, when fed-up residents take guards and government employees hostage to demand that their voices and stories be heard in what becomes known as “The Bell Riots.”  If it weren’t for this sci-fi story’s unique slang (‘gimmes,’ ‘dims,’ ’ghosts,’ etc), and some clunky 1990s-era technology, the story of “Past Tense” could easily be retitled “Present Tense.”

Writers Ira Steven Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe were the team responsible for penning this landmark two-part story which holds a mirror up to our collective apathy and mistreatment of our own species; an inhumanity not coming from the Romulans, the Borg, or some alien foe, but from us. 

“Past Tense, Part 1”

The story opens with Deep Space Nine’s starship, the Defiant, making a trip to Earth.  Once in orbit, the bridge crew takes in the view.  While Commander Sisko (Avery Brooks), Chief O’Brien (Colm Meaney) and Dr. Bashir (Alexander Siddig) never tire of seeing their home planet from space, Trill Science Officer Dax (Terry Farrell) thinks that the oceans should be “more purple,” while Bajoran Major Kira (Nana Visitor) thinks they should be “more green.” An emergency call comes in from Deep Space Nine’s resident Ferengi barkeep Quark (Armin Shimerman), asking Sisko if he could talk to Starfleet about leniency regarding the Grand Nagus Zek’s nephew, who is being held in custody on Aldebaron III.  After Quark and Sisko quote Ferengi “Rules of Acquisition” to each other, Sisko, Bashir and Dax prepare to beam down for a dinner with Admiral “Droner” Drazman of the Proxima Centauri maintenance yards, something O’Brien is lucky to have avoided as an enlisted man.  The away team reports to the transporter bay…

Note: A typical opening for what will be a most atypical episode.  And does everyone in Starfleet dread dinner with the admiralty?  It’s almost always framed as something to be avoided within Star Trek.

O’Brien beams the three officers down to Starfleet Headquarters at San Francisco when there’s a minor glitch with the transporter.  Rechecking the system, O’Brien and Kira are alarmed to discover that the three officers never materialized at Starfleet Headquarters.  O’Brien tells Kira that he had to compensate for a buildup of “chroniton particles” within the ship’s ablative armor—a side effect of the Defiant’s unique cloaking device.  Later, we learn that the chroniton particles were energized by the passing of an undiscovered micro-singularity within the Sol system.  O’Brien soon realizes that Sisko, Bashir and Dax may not have been displaced within space, but within time…

Note: You can bet credits to navy beans that anything with “chrono” in its name (i.e chroniton particles) will definitely screw with time.  You’d think that beaming down to future Earth, with its tremendous Starfleet infrastructure, would be the safest thing possible. Then again, there’s Commander Sonak and the unnamed female crew member who were killed while beaming up from Earth to the Enterprise while she was orbitally docked in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (1979).

Sisko and Bashir are both lying unconscious on a sidewalk near a subway station entrance, as two uniformed men with shotguns awaken them.  Sisko and Bashir are still a bit disoriented from the transporter malfunction, as the older of the two men, Vin (Dick Miller) asks them for ID.  Their disorientation is mistaken for mental impairment, and Vin assumes they’re ‘dims,’ while his younger partner Bernardo (Al Rodrigo) simply wants to go home to his family after their long shift.  Vin insists on taking the two down for processing.  Bashir and Sisko also notice that their combadges have been stolen while they were unconscious.  It doesn’t take the two very long to realize they’re not on 24th century Earth…

Note: The coverall uniforms of Vin and Bernardo reminded me very much of the Ghostbusters (hehe), but the sinister black eagle emblems are eerily fascistic (not to mention the color is disturbingly close to the infamous ‘brownshirt’ militias of Nazi Germany). The late Dick Smith (1928-2019) was a staple of Roger Corman films, with roles in “Little Shop of Horrors” (1960), “Piranha” (1978) and “The Terror” (1963), as well as roles in “The Howling” (1981), “The Terminator” (1984), “Explorers” (1985) and “Gremlins 2” (1990).  He was one of those faces you’d know if you saw it.

Only meters away, on the stairs of the subway station, we see an unconscious Dax, who’s awakened a lot more gently by a well-dressed man (Jim Metzler) who takes the disoriented Dax to his nearby office, where he inquires about her exotic name (“Is it Dutch?”) as well as her spots, which he assumes are some kind of Japanese tattoos. Delighted to help a ‘damsel in distress,’ he allows Dax to use his office terminal to obtain a new ID card and some ‘credit chips.’  Dax’s computer acumen comes in handy in obtaining faked credentials for an ID. The affable man is surprised she doesn’t recognize him after he tells her he’s Chris Brynner—a famous tech-guru/media-mogul.  Dax feigns recognition, “Ohhhh, the Chris Brynner!”  Dax thanks her host for his hospitality, and tells him that she was ‘traveling’ with two friends who’ve gone missing. Chris promises to help her any way he can. 

Note: I like that Chris helps Jadzia with no apparent expectation of quid pro quo, save for some very mild flirting (even by today’s standards) and a polite invitation to dinner. He never harasses her to a point of coercion or intimidation. The character seems to be a cleaned-up, more affable version of Microsoft’s Bill Gates, who was one of the first generation of ‘tech bros,’ along with Apple’s Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. The clunkier, chunkier computer technology seen in “Past Tense” is unavoidably closer to 1990s tech than that of 2024, but that’s easily forgiven considering the budget of the average Star Trek episode in those days was far less than for modern Star Treks, which are closer to feature film budgets.

Sisko and Bashir are escorted by Vin and Bernardo into a nearby ‘sanctuary district,’ a walled-off, government-created ghetto that acts as a quarantine for the unhoused and mentally ill. At this time, every major city on Earth had one, in fact. None of its residents are criminals, either, since criminals weren’t allowed within sanctuary districts.  Bashir is appalled to see families living in tents and boxes; he points out that many of these people are mentally ill and could be easily treated with medical care, even in this century. Sisko, a student of 21st century Earth history, says that the problem wasn’t a lack of caring, but that people became so overwhelmed they simply gave up. Sisko holds out hope they can find Dax soon and figure out a way home.

Note: This is exactly the kind of episode one can use as a counterargument to those who think Star Trek only recently became “woke” (a word that’s been greatly perverted beyond its intended meaning of awareness and empathy for others). This scene casually features a Black commander talking to his Sudanese doctor about the problems of the unhoused and the mentally ill, who suffer from public apathy and a lack of government support.  But please, tell me again about how social politics and diverse representation never got into Star Trek before 2017…?

At a drab government office building within the sanctuary district, Bashir and Sisko are fingerprinted and photographed. They’re nowhere to be found in the computer system.  Bashir half-kiddingly asks if they’re free to go.  Instead, they’re sent to fill out paperwork to apply for entry within the sanctuary.  Sisko notices the date on a digital calendar—August 30th, 2024.  It’s nearly the date for what history will remember as “The Bell Riots,” when the residents of the sanctuary rose against the guards and took hostages to demand that their stories be told.  It ended with violence, but it also shed new light on the disenfranchised that led to radical changes felt even in the 24th century.  After hours of waiting, Bashir and Sisko are finally sent to meet with a burdened but sympathetic government employee named Lee (Tina Lifford) who assumed the two men were ‘dims,’ until she realizes they’re intelligent and fully aware.  She now thinks they’re simply ‘gimmes’—a term she apologetically admits is used to describe those who simply lack housing and employment. Lee is unable to do much for Sisko and Bashir, save for giving them ration cards for food, and advising them to avoid ‘ghosts’; the more violent residents in the district who prey on other residents.

Note: The neutral color palette of this story is suitably drab and depressing, with everything in muted shades of gray and brown. There is very little color, save for the teal and red in Bashir and Sisko’s uniforms, which speak to a more vibrant and colorful future for humanity a few centuries down the road. 

During their first night in the sanctuary, Sisko and Bashir walk through several apartment buildings, which all seem to be run by self-appointed resident slumlords who refuse to allow any new arrivals in their buildings.  A dispirited Bashir wonders if humans are really all that different from the Romulans or the Cardassians of their own time. They then encounter a gang of ‘ghosts,’ led by “B.C” (Frank Military), a genuine creep who shakes down other residents for whatever he can. The ghosts are beating up another resident, and Bashir instinctively moves to intervene, but Sisko stops him—reminding him of the Prime Directive, which prohibits them from taking actions that might alter the timeline.  When B.C. tells his gang to get Sisko’s ration card, he’s met with resistance, until Sisko assures him they’re only looking for a place to stay.  B.C tells the “new boy” to move on, and they do, not spoiling for a confrontation. 

Note: It’s a testament to the exceptional acting ability of actor Frank Military that I hate his character of “B.C,” aka “Biddle Coleridge” as much as I do. His stupid hat and boorish arrogance make him extremely punchable.  When I first saw this episode in 1995, I half-waited for Sisko to beat the snot out of him, but he didn’t; making Sisko a master of self-restraint in this scene. 

The following morning, after sleeping in an alleyway, Bashir is awakened by Sisko with a plate of eggs and bread, but sadly no utensils or napkins.  A grateful Bashir vows that if they ever return to the space station, he will never complain about Cardassian beds ever again.  Sisko then tells the doctor he wants to find a rooftop to see if there’s a way out.  Once again checking out one of the same buildings that rejected them earlier, Sisko tells the man in charge that he only wants a look from the roof, nothing else. Sisko then agrees to a trade; they’re uniforms for secondhand clothes and a look. Once in the building, they meet a middle-aged man named Webb (Bill Smitrovich), who warns them away with a knife.  Bashir realizes the man is standing guard over his injured teenage son, Danny (Richard Lee Jackson), who was beaten up by ghosts.  Bashir offers to treat Danny, no strings attached.  The good doctor happily tells the boy he has no broken ribs and his injuries are superficial.  Webb then fetches some alcohol for Bashir to sterilize the wounds.  As they leave the building, Webb rushes after to thank them and to offer them a chance to participate in a resistance movement he’s forming.  Sisko and Bashir decline. 

Note: Actor Bill Smitrovich also played the father of a son with Down’s syndrome (Chris Burke) in the groundbreaking family drama “Life Goes On” (1989-1993) which costarred Broadway star Patti LuPone (“Evita”) and Kellie Martin.

Meanwhile, Dax has been given some clothes, a new hairstyle, some credit chips and a stay in a posh hotel—all courtesy of Chris Brynner, with no apparent ulterior motive on his part, save for inviting her to a swank party of one-percenters.  As the upper crust kvetch about Europe going to hell (dampening all their vacation plans), Dax warns that might happen in the United States as well. When asked why she feels that way, Chris interjects and says Jadzia was mugged.  One of Chris’s friends says that Jadzia was lucky Chris found her before she could be taken to a sanctuary district.  Jadzia suddenly realizes that’s what must’ve happened to Sisko and Bashir.  She asks Chris if there’d be a sanctuary record of them online, and Chris says that such information is confidential…though the tech guru admits he might be able to pull in a few favors. 

Note: I realize that making accurate fashion predictions from 1995 into 2024 is virtually impossible, but did they have to give Dax a ‘Dutch Boy’ hairdo with a bird’s nest in back?  Terry Farrell is a very beautiful woman, but the ‘2024’ fashion choices made for her character in “Past Tense” are almost laughably bad.

Dinner time within the sanctuary district walls is a very different experience than at Chris Brynner’s society party. As Sisko goes to wait in an interminably long food line, B.C and his gang of ghosts return to harass Bashir for his food card. Having had enough of B.C, Sisko intervenes to help Bashir before the rest of B.C’s goon squad join in.  Meanwhile, a man with a haunted expression on his face (John L. Bennett) sees the fight and rushes to help Sisko and Bashir. For his trouble, B.C stabs the man in the side, and he collapses.  As police helicopters swoop in with searchlights, Bashir tries to resuscitate the fallen man, but to no avail. Sisko then grabs the dead man’s ID, as he and Bashir run away before they’re framed for the murder. As they find safety in a nearby alleyway, Sisko and Bashir look over the ID card and discover the man who died saving their lives was none other than Gabriel Bell—the very man who was supposed to change the course of Earth history forever.

Note: In some ways, this story is DS9’s answer to TOS Star Trek’s own classic episode, “City on the Edge of Forever”; both stories feature a single anonymous person in a slum changing the course of Earth history by their actions. While Edith Keeler was struck down before her peace movement would cost the United States its vital victory in World War 2, Gabriel Bell is killed before his actions could make a more positive impact on the world. 

In 24th century Earth orbit, the Defiant suddenly loses contact with Starfleet following Bell’s murder, and Chief O’Brien realizes the Federation is gone, with the nearest subspace signals being Romulan traffic detected near Proxima Centauri. Knowing that Sisko is in the past somewhere, they speculate that the timeline has been changed, and that the chronitons in the ship’s hull have somehow protected them from those changes.

Back in 2024, Sisko realizes he has to keep the timeline from unraveling, so he agrees to join Webb’s resistance movement.  The sanctuary district is then set ablaze, and Webb’s group takes guards and employees at the processing center hostage.  Taking a guard’s shotgun, Sisko confronts B.C and tells him “My name is Gabriel Bell.”

To Be Continued…

“Past Tense, Part 2”

Sisko, posing as Gabriel Bell, ushers their hostages to safety, reminding the hotheaded B.C that the hostages are valuable to them as bargaining chips.  As Bashir and Sisko use benches to barricade the windows, Bashir quietly reminds Sisko that Bell was martyred when police retook the building in the original timeline.  Sisko says that he’s not Bell. Meanwhile, Vin bursts into the building carrying a pistol, attempting to play hero, before he’s disarmed by B.C who then aims a shotgun at the crusty veteran’s head. The threat of violence causes government clerk Lee to panic.  Sisko forcibly disarms B.C, as Bashir rushes to calm Lee down.  Would-be hero Vin is forced to sit with the other hostages. 

Note: The scenes of the hostages and their desperate captors reminded me very much of Sidney Lumet’s “Dog Day Afternoon” (1975), a movie about a group of incompetent bank robbers who engage in a long, hot summer standoff with the police as they hold several bank employees hostage. I hadn’t seen “Dog Day Afternoon” when I first saw “Past Tense Part 2” in 1995, but having seen the movie in the years since, it’s a clear influence (despite the more noble intentions of the Starfleet characters over Al Pacino’s pathetic gang of semi-delusional misfits).  This second part of “Past Tense” was directed by Jonathan Frakes, who played Commander Riker in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and who’s directed two TNG feature films (“Star Trek: First Contact,” “Star Trek: Insurrection”) as well as many other episodes of Star Trek on television, past and present. 

Aboard the temporally-protected Defiant, Kira and O’Brien speculate they have about ten or so chroniton particles’ worth of attempts to locate Sisko and the others across time.  Their plan is to beam into the most likely targets to scan for the others before the preset transporter beams them back to the ship.  Their first beam down sees them arriving in the gilded age of the late 1920s, before the stock market crash of 1929.  Two dapper party guests see the strangely dressed visitors from the 24th century, as Kira feels self-conscious about the bandage used to cover the crinkles on her Bajoran nose.  After a minute of so of scanning without result, they’re automatically beamed back.  During another attempt later on, Kira and O’Brien beam to the same spot in the late 1960s, where loud rock music forces them to shout as they scan for the others before two stoned hippies exit a van and give them peace signs.  Unfortunately, the transporter beams Kira and O’Brien back right in front of the two stoned hippies, who won’t make very credible eyewitnesses, at least…

Note: Despite this episode’s heavy subjects of poverty and wealth inequality, it’s nice that writers Ira Steven Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe managed to work in these brief temporal shenanigans to keep things from getting too grim. 

Over the objections of resident hothead B.C, who demands a plane to Tasmania (the birthplace of his hero, Errol Flynn), Sisko convinces the rest of the group that the cooler-headed Webb, ’the guy next door,’ should be their spokesperson with the police crisis negotiator. They manage to get ahold of San Francisco police detective Preston (Deborah Van Valkenburgh) on the web terminal, and she agrees to meet in person.  Meanwhile, Vin further antagonizes his captors by calling them losers, while his family man partner Bernardo begs him to shut up—for their own safety. Sisko ignores Vin’s taunts, and dissuades the unstable B.C from retaliating as well.  Sisko and Webb then meet with Detective Preston, who keeps her word. She then presses them for the release of one hostage as an act of good faith, but when resists their demands, her offer is refused. However, she promises they’ll all get breakfast, in order to keep the lines of negotiation open.

Note: Actress Deborah Van Valkenburgh is perhaps best known for her role in the cult street gang movie, “The Warriors” (1979), as well as her role in the sitcom “Too Close for Comfort” on both ABC network and first-run syndication from 1980-1987. She was also very memorable as William Shatner’s bar-owner love interest in the screwball sci-fi fandom comedy, “Free Enterprise” (1999); a movie near and dear to my heart, and a must-see for all sci-fi fans.

Inside the office, Bashir notices that hostage Lee doesn’t look well.  Offering to take a look, she’s dubious of letting him examine her until he accurately diagnoses her hypoglycemia, which he promises to treat with a chocolate bar, if possible, to restore her blood sugar levels.  Realizing Bashir is a professional man, Lee also guesses that “Gabriel Bell” gave her a false name when she admitted the two of them the day before. Bashir plays along, saying that “Bell” got into some trouble a while back, and he was keeping a low profile.  She then tells Bashir how she almost lost her job once for letting a resident into the sanctuary without paperwork.  Bashir admires her humanity, though Lee laments that things will never change.

Note: A quick round of applause for guest star Tina Lifford, and all guest stars of this exceptionally well-acted episode. Mainly appearing in guest roles for various TV shows, Lifford had previously costarred with Bill Smitrovich in an episode of “Life Goes On,” as well as a 2005 Bruce Willis film coincidentally titled “Hostage.” 

After a tough night of keeping both Vin and B.C from destroying their delicate situation, Sisko manages to restore order for the moment—convincing B.C (once again) to stand down, while asking Vin to find some empathy for what the residents in the sanctuary district are going through, but his words fall on deaf ears.  Meanwhile, Det. Preston returns with breakfast as well as the governor’s response to their demands; he’ll reduce the charges to incitement to riot if they agree to release the hostages.  Sisko presses, asking her if he’ll meet their demands for the sanctuary district’s closure and a restoration of the Jobs Act.  Preston says he’s looking into forming a “committee” to see what can be done—in other words, nothing will change.  Preston’s offer on behalf of the governor is once again rejected by Sisko and Webb.  After the meeting ends, Preston learns that the governor wants to storm the office at the earliest moment with an armed SWAT team at 0500 the following morning.  Sadly, Preston says nothing to dissuade this reckless plan.

Note: The character of Det. Preston serves as a reminder to not always accept kind words on face value during vital negotiations, since she goes right along with the governor’s plan to retake the hostages by force—putting all lives in jeopardy.  

Meanwhile, Dax then enters the San Franciscan sewers in order to reach the sanctuary district. Once there, she’s stalked by an eccentric “dim” named Grady (Clint Howard) who lurks behind her.  After Grady steals her combadge and scurries off, she’s then captured by B.C’s gang and brought to the processing office with the other hostages.  Everyone is surprised that this well-dressed woman is the ‘friend’ that “Gabriel” and Bashir were trying to locate.  Sisko wants Dax to take Bashir and find the beam out point, but Dax needs to get her combadge back from Grady, whom they manage to find poorly hidden in one of the rundown apartment buildings.  Dax manages to convince the childlike Grady that she’s a “good alien,” and that she needs the device to talk with her friends. Grady returns it willingly, and Dax asks that he agree to keep “their secret,” which he does…

Note: Clint Howard, is of course, the same actor who played the alien “Balok” in the classic TOS Star Trek episode, “The Corbomite Maneuver” when the actor was all of 7 years old. In addition to guest appearances in his brother Ron Howard’s movies, such as “Far and Away” (1992) and “Apollo 13” (1995), Clint Howard has made numerous appearances in other Star Trek episodes as well, such as the Ferengi pirate ‘Muk’ in Star Trek: Enterprise (“Acquisition”), an Orion in Star Trek: Discovery (“Will You Take My Hand?”) and most recently as Commander Buck Martinez in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (“Under the Cloak of War”). I met Howard once in Las Vegas, and I can vouch that he’s a genuine character. 

Dax then returns to Chris Brynner and pleads for his help in restoring internet access to the processing office so that the residents of the sanctuary can plead their cases on the web.  Brynner resists giving a voice to ‘criminals,’ to which Dax says that when the office is stormed, people are going to be killed and their stories deserve to be heard before that happens.  Chris mentions that he’ll probably lose his operating license by hacking the system…but the ratings will be great.  He agrees to help.  One by one, the residents of the sanctuary district go the terminal at the processing office and freely tell their stories…

Note: A wealthy media guru willing to risk his own safety to help give a voice to the unhoused; a sad reminder that this must be science fiction.  

After beaming back from a significantly altered version of 2048, Kira and O’Brien deduce that 2024 must be where the timeline diverged. The two of them have just enough chroniton radiation particles to make one final attempt, and once they beam down. They tap their combadges and Dax answers.  A relieved Dax tells them she needs to retrieve Sisko and Bashir before they can return to the ship, so Kira and O’Brien deactivate their combadges to stop transporter’s automatic return.

Note: I wish we could’ve seen a glimpse of that altered 2048, which would be right in the middle of World War 3, according to the revised timeline established in “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.”

Things are somewhat relaxed inside the processing office, as both hostages and captors talk sports.  Vin and Bernardo have a disagreement on best baseball seasons, with Bernardo and Sisko agreeing that Buck Bokai’s rookie year with the London Kings was an all-time best.  Lee quips that she’s a soccer fan, and has no say in the matter.  Meanwhile, B.C sees something happening outside.  The feeling gets very heavy as they realize SWAT teams are storming in soon.  Webb says a tearful goodbye to his son Danny, and even B.C gets sentimental and gives the boy his stupid hat as a parting gift…

Note: Well, it’s 2024, and there’s never been a London Kings pro baseball team, to say nothing of a super-talented rookie named Buck Bokai, who once appeared to Sisko as an illusion in the DS9 episode, “If Wishes Were Horses.” However, the Los Angeles Dodgers recently signed right-handed Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto to a 12-year contract.  Quite a coup from what I hear. However, like Lee, I’m not a baseball fan, so I digress.

Then the SWAT team blows through the windows and begin firing with laser-guided scopes.  They nearly kill hostage Vin, before Sisko jumps in and takes a bullet for him. After B.C, Webb and other residents are killed, the SWAT leader declares the area secure. Vin yells at the SWAT leader, “I’m a hostage!” The indifferent SWAT leader gives Vin and Bernardo their weapons back, while Vin realizes Sisko saved his life. Bashir quickly examines Sisko’s bullet wound and determines he’ll be okay since no major organs were penetrated.  Sisko tells Vin that he should’ve stayed down, as he’d instructed, as the two come to respect each other. 

Once the situation comes to a close, Vin and Bernardo escort Sisko and Bashir outside, where bodies litter the streets after the orgy of violence. The National Guard enters to take control, as Vin shows his gratitude to Sisko by switching his ID of Gabriel Bell with one of the dead bodies, which will allow Sisko to escape. This action will also unwittingly preserve the timeline since history records that Gabriel Bell was originally supposed to be martyred during the “Bell Riots” and that his death was the watershed event that led to the closure of the sanctuary districts in all cities. Now that Vin has switched Bell’s name with a corpse, one will assume he died protecting the residents, as he did in the original timeline. People across the world also heard the messages from the sanctuary residents, which put faces to their numbers. 

Note: My only nitpick with Vin’s plan is eyewitnesses. Wouldn’t any of the hostages (besides Vin and Bernardo) report to the police that Bell wasn’t killed by the SWAT team? That’s a shaky premise on which to restore a timeline, but sure…the episode is so good, I’m willing to buy into it. 

The episode’s coda sees the Defiant leaving Earth orbit after the timeline has been corrected, and the 24th century has been restored.  Sisko is still recovering from his shotgun wound in his bunk, as Dr. Bashir comes to pay him a visit.  Bashir holds a PADD with a historical file photo of Gabriel Bell which now resembles Sisko.  Sisko says he’s not looking forward to explaining that photo to Starfleet Command. Bashir is still haunted by the experience, and is unable to understand just how the people of 21st century Earth allowed things to get so bad.  Sisko simply says, “That’s a good question. I wish I had an answer.”

The End

Note: In the best Star Trek tradition, there are no easy answers given to Bashir’s question.  We’re simply told that there will be a better tomorrow, but how we get there is entirely up to us—not from any answers gleaned from a TV show.

Summing It Up

From the depressing color palette to the black eagles seen everywhere, the episodes’ fictional 21st century is a grim and ugly place; a United States under the iron talons of fascism—where simply being unemployed, broke or ill amounts is a crime that can see someone whisked away to an inescapable, government-created ghetto. As I watched this two-parter in full for the first time in years, I was struck by how familiar it now seemed.  Too familiar, in fact.  When I first saw it in 1995, it was another current issue (homelessness) told with sci-fi trappings. Now, with a monstrously widening wealth gap, you can practically smell it. 

Under the direction of both Beza Badiyi (Part 1) and Jonathan Frakes (Part 2), Avery Brooks really came into his own as Ben Sisko with this two-parter, with the character showing an intensity we hadn’t really since the pilot. Alexander Siddig’s Bashir also delivers an excellent performance, expressing understandable contempt at the way 21st century humans look down their noses at the have-nots of their own species. Guest stars Dick Miller, Frank Military, Bill Smitrovich, Clint Howard and Tina Lifford also stand out among the guest cast; all creating memorable characters. 

One unavoidable issue with the two-parter is that it couldn’t predict the amazing advances of the past 30 years we’ve seen with internet, phone and other electronics technologies.  The internet seen in “Past Tense” seems only a few years removed from where we were in 1995, along with large flip-phones and clunky CRT monitors everywhere.  Not to mention that characters still have to log onto fixed internet ‘terminals’ rather than simply go online with their smartphones, as they would today.  One or two smuggled smartphones into the sanctuary district (or phones borrowed by staffers) might’ve been enough to get the residents’ word out. Of course, no one could’ve guessed the exact shapes of things to come; not even all-seeing Star Trek writers, who ironically pointed the way to some of that technology back in the 1960s. 

More important than the episode’s forecasting of 21st century technology is the mirror it holds up to our apathy towards and mistreatment of those worse off than ourselves; that’s something the episode absolutely nails. And in classic Star Trek style, “Past Tense” doesn’t tell us exactly how our current social issues will be overcome—only that they will be. The solutions aren’t going to be found in some utopian book of answers; they will be for us to write ourselves as we embark upon the often terrifying human journey.  Perhaps, like those unforeseen advances in technology, the answers to our current social issues will come from places that no one could’ve predicted or foreseen.  

That the two halves of “Past Tense” still spark debate over the issues and struggles of the unhoused and uncared for means that the writers truly did their jobs well, making this is a hard-hitting Deep Space Nine story that is not to be missed.  

Where to Watch

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is available to stream on Paramount+ and to rent/purchase digitally on PrimeVideo. The series can also be purchased on DVD (sadly, no BluRay release) from Amazon.com (prices vary by seller). Sincerely hoping against the odds (and the diminishing market for physical media collection) that we may someday see a BluRay release for this marvelous Star Trek series.